Golden State Warriors vs Portland Trail Blazers – NBA

Golden State Warriors vs Portland Trail Blazers / NBA – The Warriors won Game 1 in the final of Western Conference, although the end result 116-94 was created mostly in the fourth quarter, which the reigning champions won by 39-23. Game will be also played in Oracle Arena in Oakland, and the home team will most probably have to play without Durant and Cousins.

Golden State Warriors

Durant wasn’t ready for the beginning of series and as things stand now he will not be ready for Game 2 either. In fact, it is not certain will he take part in the series at all. Situation with Cousins is also not clear, although, absent of the two of them wasn’t so visible in Game 1. Simply, Curry took matters in his own hands and finished the game with 36 points (three-pointers 9/15), while Thompson added his 26 points. Green was again very versatile, and the bench played quite solidly.

That was the ninth victory of the Warriors in 10 play-off games against Portland. We should add to this that since 2015 they won 18 out of 19 Game 1’s, or first games in play-off series, and they won last 12. They shot better, where their shooting from the field was at 50%, while for three points even 51.5%! The Warriors should play in the same rhythm now and winning Game 2 will be pretty much a sure thing.

Portland Trail Blazers

It seems that Portland burnt from too much desire to continue with good results in the play-off and that was very visibly in their shooting from the field in Game 1 that was far lower than expected 35%, while shooting for three points was also very weak 25%! It didn’t help that Hood was back in the team (17 points) after recovery from leg injury in Game 7 with Denver. Lillard shot from the field 4/12, McCollum 7/19, and if we exclude Hood, all other reserve players had scored only 11 points.

Lillard averaged 30 points in last 10 play-off games with Portland (in the regular season that was 28.3 points and 6.5 assists), but now he was stopped at 19. We saw how Portland plays when it guards don’t have their day, or in other words when McCollum and Lillard don’t score together at least 50-55 points the Blazers cannot expect a positive outcome.

Golden State Warriors vs Portland Trail Blazers Picks

The Splash brothers have showed for the umpteenth time that can win without Durant and that can count on versatile Green. On the other hand Lillard and McCollum will surely play better and we expect a far more uncertain and efficient game than it was Game 1.